MINNEAPOLIS — It was the eighth inning at Target Field on Monday night when the out-of-town scoreboard flashed a final score of Tigers 6, Blue Jays 5. 

In the visiting dugout, bench coach Brad Ausmus leaned over to manager Aaron Boone to officially recognize what had just happened. 

“Well, back to the playoffs,” Ausmus said, in what Boone described as “very subdued” fashion. 

But not long after, by the time the Yankees finished their 35th comeback win of the year to beat the Twins 8-3, the celebration became a bit rowdier. 

In what they hope was the first of five champagne- and beer-splashed parties over the next six weeks, the Yankees soaked up punching their postseason berth — despite it long seeming like a formality, even as they dragged through some rough summer stretches without Aaron Judge — while keeping one eye on the final 12 games in which they will try to make one last push for the AL East. 

“The group we have, you get us in there [the playoffs], anything can happen,” Aaron Judge said. “I like our chances.” 

Judge, fittingly, punctuated a six-run eighth inning by clobbering a three-run moonshot — his first home run in his sixth game since he returned from a three-month IL stay for a broken right rib — to the third deck in left field. It may as well have been a warning shot to the rest of the American League, because if this was a sign of things to come for Judge, watch out. 

Besides getting Judge on track, the Yankees (87-63) will spend the final two weeks trying to chase down the Rays, whom they now trail by 3 ¹/₂ games for first place in the American League with a crucial four-game showdown looming next week in The Bronx. The Yankees also extended their lead over the Red Sox to five games for the top AL wild card. 

“It’s an uphill battle, without question. Tampa’s obviously playing great,” Boone said. “But baseball’s a funny game.” 

It was Monday, when the game served as something of a microcosm for the Yankees’ season. They got off to a good start, with José Caballero’s solo shot in the third inning, then went quietly offensively as Will Warren turned in a strong outing that was eventually marred by his defense letting him down in the sixth inning and the Twins (70-80) taking a 2-1 lead. 

But the Yankees, who spent most of the summer playing in tight, low-scoring games without Judge that they believe will help them in October, found a way to fight back. On a night when they had two hits through seven innings, they reeled off six in the eighth inning alone to deliver a knockout punch and set off the celebration in style. 

“When we’re at full strength, I feel like we’re unstoppable,” said Warren, who allowed only two unearned runs across 5 ²/₃ innings. “I think we’re a really good team. We’re looking to do more. This is the baseline. This is what we’re expected to do. So it’s continuing to move forward and push the needle.” 

“There’s a lot of grit in this team,” added Judge. 

The Yankees were largely ridiculed over the offseason for mostly running back a roster that got walloped by the Blue Jays in the ALDS after finishing the regular season in second place for the division because they lost the tiebreaker with Toronto. 

But with big steps forward from Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice, the addition of Ryan Weathers to the rotation, the trade deadline addition of Luis García Jr., the call-ups of Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr., and a pitching staff with the lowest ERA in the majors, the Yankees are armed with the confidence that this October can be a different story than all of the others since the last time they won a World Series in 2009. 

“I think we have the best pitching staff in the league,” said catcher Austin Wells, who added a home run in the ninth inning. “We’ve been riding them all year and we’re going to continue to ride them. … Me personally, getting to work with them every day, I got all the belief in the world that they’re going to take us all the way.”